


Pip

by Im_writing_out_of_time



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angst, F/M, More than just AND PEGGY, Newborn, PEGGY IS A SUPPORTING CHARACTER AND SHE IS IMPORTANT, Philip Lives, Premature Labor, preemie, premature, so it's not too much angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-29 04:35:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11433273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_writing_out_of_time/pseuds/Im_writing_out_of_time
Summary: Eliza is pregnant with hers and Alexander's first child when she begins feeling sick. Rushing to the hospital, contractions start and her water breaks- all in the emergency room. Philip is born at 30 weeks gestation- ten weeks early. Though he stronger than the average preemie, there are still many complications the family must go through.





	Pip

Alexander woke up to the sound of birds chirping outside his window. He scowled at the sound before turning to look at his wife. She was gorgeous; her hair shone bright in the sun, her skin pale against his own, and her body beautifully radiant from the pregnancy glow that surrounded her. Her lip was pouting slightly and her brow was furrowed, making Alexander question what she was dreaming about. He leaned over and kissed her cheek, her eyes fluttering open and close a few times. She turned over to face him, her face pained.

“Alexander, I don’t feel good.”

He sat up in bed, the sheet falling down his body. “Don’t feel good how?”

“Crampy,” Eliza whimpered, wrapping her arms around her stomach. “I don’t know, just not good.” She grabbed Alexander’s hand and held them to her stomach.

“Do they happen somewhat regularly?”

She nodded and he waited for her to whimper from another cramp before bolting out of bed. “Eliza, honey, you’re having contractions. We need to go to the doctor, now.” He ran to the dresser and started rooting through, looking for clothes. He turned around, pulling on his shirt at Eliza, sitting on the bed in shock.

“Alexander, it’s too early. He can’t be coming now. He still has ten weeks to go,” she cried.

He grabbed a dress from the closet and Eliza’s hospital bag, tossing them on the end of the bed. He wrestled into a pair of pants and helped Eliza sit up in bed, sliding her nightgown off. “He’s trying to come now and that’s why we need to go to the hospital. They’ll be able to do something to stop the contractions. Do you want a bra to wear under your dress?”

Eliza shook her head and Alexander slipped the dress on over her head, helping her stand up and pull the skirt down. She walked to the bedroom door and headed down the stairs, her bare feet padding against the hardwood floor. Alexander grabbed the hospital bag from the bed and ran out the door behind Eliza.

Eliza climbed in the car and leaned her seat back slightly, her hands clenching her stomach. Alexander kept glancing at her as he drove, the worry clear in his eyes. His fingers were tight on the steering wheel, knuckles white, arms shaking. 

“Alexander, please calm down.” She put her hand on his arm, which calmed him slightly. 

He turned and smiled at her, tears in his eyes. “I love you so much, Eliza. I don’t want anything to ever happen to you. Or Philip. You both mean so much to me,” his voice cracked as he turned into the hospital parking lot. “I can’t lose you.” 

He scooted out of the car and ran around, opening Eliza’s door and grabbing the hospital bag from the back seat. They walked in through the emergency bay, Eliza leaning against the wall as another contraction rippled through her core. “Alex-” She had stopped walking and stood there, legs shoulder-width apart, a growing puddle beneath her. “My water broke.” 

“Stay there. I’ll go get a doctor or nurse or something.” He ran around the corner, leaving Eliza shaking against the wall. She tried to focus on her breathing until she saw Alexander pushing a wheelchair with an ER attending nurse behind him. “Eliza, we’re going up to maternity, okay? Little Philip is coming today.” Alexander grabbed her hands and helped her to the wheelchair. 

Eliza sank into the chair. “He can’t. He’s too early. He’s too little. Alexander, we don’t have everything we need for him. He’s too little!” she sobbed. 

Alexander held her hand as the attending pushed her to the elevator. “I know, Eliza, but this is the best place for him. They can help him here. He’s gonna be small, but they’ll help him grow.” 

The elevator doors opened and they waited at the maternity ward door for the attending to open the electronically locked door. He swiped his key card and pushed Eliza into the third room on the right. The nurses’ station was right outside the door and Eliza could hear them talking to someone on the phone, presumably Eliza’s obstetrician. Eliza stared at the wall, her body being moved by the nurse and Alexander. She knew they were talking, but the blood rushing through her ears made it impossible for her to hear anything. 

The nurse went to a cupboard and grabbed a gown before he started hooking up the fetal monitor machine behind Alexander. “Mrs. Hamilton, you have to get changed, okay? Once you’re in your gown, I’m going to wrap these around your stomach. The one with the green band monitors your contractions and the baby’s movements, and the one with the pink band monitors the baby’s heart rate. I’ll be right back, to put these on once you get changed.” He walked out the door briskly, the door squeaking closed behind him. 

“Eliza, my darling, please. You gotta be strong. You just have to. We both do. Can you get changed into this gown? Please? You can’t zone out if you want to keep Philip safe and healthy.” Eliza finally broke her stare. “There you go darling. Let’s get your clothes off and get this gown on.” She nodded and pulled her dress off over her head. She swung her feet off the bed and Alexander pulled her underwear off, folding them and wrapping them up in her folded dress. “Let’s get the gown on.” Eliza took the gown from Alexander’s hands and pulled it on, not tying it before she laid down on the bed. 

There was a knock at the door and the male nurse from the ER came in with a nurse from the maternity floor trailing behind him. “Okay, I’m going to put on these monitors and then I have to get back to the ER. This is Peggy, she’ll be taking care of you for the rest of the morning.”

“I know Peggy,” Eliza said, tears in her eyes. “She’s my sister.”

Peggy had tears in her eyes too. “Hi Eliza. I have to give you a shot. It’s a corticosteroid that helps develop his lungs a little more. I’ll give it to you in your arm while Mason gets the monitors on.”

Eliza nodded and closed her eyes as she felt another contraction coming and they were getting stronger. Alexander grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, Mason and Peggy stepping back to give Eliza space. “Alexander,” she whimpered. 

“You’re so strong Eliza. You can do this. Our little man will be here before you know it.” The contraction wave ebbed away and Eliza opened her eyes, holding her arm out for Peggy. Mason reached across Eliza’s body, grabbing the straps for her monitors, tightening them and adjusting the bands until everyone could hear his heart beating. The machine that was hooked up to the monitors was spitting out perforated paper, marking anything that the sensors were picking up. 

“Hear that Eliza? His heart is beating strong. Keep him in for a little while longer and the steroids will have time to help his lungs.” Peggy grasped her sister’s hand and squeezed it, comforting her. “We have to see how dilated you are so far. Do you mind me checking it or would you rather someone else?” 

“You can do it,” Eliza said monotonously, trying to keep her voice from breaking. Alexander stared at her, at her eyes, at how dull they looked. The light had diminished from her eyes and she looked hopeless. 

“Eliza, they know what they’re doing here. Okay? Look at me.” He grabbed both of her hands and her face turned towards him. “They’ve got some of the best doctors here. If he needs a little more growing, they’ll help him grow. He probably won’t be able to nurse right away, and if he doesn’t, you can pump and we’ll take turns feeding him from a bottle until he does. When they release you, we’ll be here every day until he can go home. We’re not giving up. Our little Philip is going to be handsome, and smart, and strong, and a fighter.”

“You really think so?”

“I know so,” he said, kissing her forehead. 

Peggy adjusted Eliza’s legs and spread them slightly. “This is going to be little uncomfortable, okay E?”

Eliza nodded. “I just feel like it’s my fault. Like there was something that I did that I shouldn’t have or something I should have done that I didn’t. It’s all my fault. I could have done something different and Philip would still be waiting to make his grand exit for another two months. It’s all my”- 

Alexander pushed his lips to Eliza’s, effectively shutting her up. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.” He held her head in his hands. “I love you. So much. And I know you would never do anything to hurt the baby. Our baby. I know how much you already love him. And I already love him. He’ll be okay, Eliza.” 

“Alexander, I’m so tired. Can I sleep?” Her blinks became longer. 

“Peggy, can she sleep?” 

Peggy set Eliza’s legs back down on the bed and pulled off her gloves. “She’s a little over five centimeters dilated, so if she’s going to get any sleep, she should get it now.” She stood beside Eliza and kissed her sister’s forehead. “Get some rest. The doctor will be here soon. I’ll let him know everything and then we’ll check on you again in a little while. Okay?” She kissed Eliza’s forehead once more. “Come get me if she needs anything. I’ll be staying past my shift to help you guys anyway. And hopefully help deliver little Philip.” She grinned as she walked out of the room. “I love you guys. Sleep well, Eliza.” 

Alexander sat at her bedside, watching her as she slept. He could tell when she was getting a contraction. She’d whimper and her eyebrows would furrow. He kept his eye on the paper that was printing out her contractions. He had figured out how to read it while he was sitting there and from what he could tell, her contractions were almost constant, and she was riding the waves of pain that came with them. 

He reached forward and brushed a stray lock of hair away from her face. She was so strong. It pained him to know what she was going through and he wished he could do anything to take away some of her pain. Eliza’s eyes bolted open and she groaned in pain once more. 

“Alexander, where’s Peggy? And the doctor?” She turned on her side, cradling her stomach. 

“I’ll go get them.” He pulled his hand from her grasp and bolted out the door, coming back pulling Peggy behind him and the doctor following.

“I feel like I need to push. Is that normal?”

The doctor checked the paper being spit out by the machine at the head of the bed. “It looks like your little one will be here very soon. Let me see how dilated you are.” Eliza moved her legs to accommodate the doctor as he pulled on his gloves. “Okay, you’re ten centimeters dilated. We’re going to break down the bed and attach the stirrups. Put your feet in the stirrups and when you feel the need to push, push as hard as you can for as long as you can.” Peggy began to take apart the bed and she pushed the stirrups into place. “It’ll be easier if you lean forward and grab your ankles as you push, okay?” 

Eliza lifted her feet into the stirrups, and leaned forward, grabbing her ankles. She felt like she had been pushing forever when the contraction finally waved away. Peggy kissed her forehead. “You’re doing great. Guess what.” Eliza hummed a response. “You can see his head already. He’s got some dark hair. He’s gonna be beautiful, ’Liza.” Eliza nodded and leaned forward again, feeling the pressure relieve itself a tiny bit. “His head is already out, Eliza. Just a few more pushes, okay? You’re doing great.” 

Alexander, for once, stood speechless beside his wife, completely entranced in the miracle that he was witnessing. He looked down and realized that Peggy wasn’t exaggerating at all. There were wet, wisps of curls on their baby’s head, his skin pale against the darkness of his hair. He had thin cheeks and was noticeably smaller, even just his head. Eliza threw her body forward and pushed, the baby’s body sliding into the doctor’s hands. Peggy grabbed the baby from the doctor’s hands with a receiving blanket. She was drying him off in slow, easy circles as the doctor began clearing his airway. 

Delicate cries sounded in the room as the baby took his first breath and Eliza fell back onto the bed, able to rest a tiny bit while her son was being attended to. He was small, his skin pale, his extremities slightly blue. Eliza whimpered from the bed, pushing again, feeling the need to deliver the rest of the afterbirth. “Can I hold him?” 

“We have to cut his umbilical cord. Alexander?” 

Alexander’s eyes grew wide and he nodded his head. The doctor held Philip, Peggy pulled his umbilical cord taut and Alexander’s hand shook as he cut between Peggy’s fingers. The doctor clamped the umbilical stub attached to Philip while Peggy placed the afterbirth in a bowl beside the bed and stripped off her gloves, grabbing the tiny newborn from the doctor. She adjusted the blanket on her newborn nephew and walked to her sister. 

She pulled down the top of Eliza’s gown and set the little baby on her sister’s chest. “We’re going to have to take him to the NICU, Eliza. His breathing is okay, but his lungs are still underdeveloped. He’s sixteen and a quarter inches and two pounds, seven and a half ounces. He’s small, but he’s a fighter. I can tell.”

Alexander brought his face down beside Eliza’s. “He’s too small for a name like Philip. He’s our little Pip.” He brushed his lips against Philip’s head. “Hi little Pip. I’m your dad.” The tears slid down his face as he watched Philip root around Eliza’s breast. Peggy adjusted Eliza’s breast so her nipple was pointing up, towards Phillip’s mouth. His mouth latched on immediately and Eliza gasped, tears running down her smiling face.

“Hi Pip,” she whispered, breathing lightly in amazement. “I’m your mommy.” She laughed, wiping at the tears on her cheeks. “That’s such a weird feeling. Is he actually getting anything?”

“Maybe, maybe not. He was born early, so it’s probable that your milk hasn’t come in, but if he keeps nursing like this, it could help it come in. But for a little while, he doesn’t even need the milk. He needs to know who his mommy is, what she smells like, what she feels like. But it’s good that he’s nursing so early. Most babies his gestational age haven’t developed a sucking reflex. It’s a good sign that he’ll eat when the time comes. You’re very lucky.” Philip unlatched himself and his cry warbled through the room. It was weak but there. 

“Eliza, we have to take him to the NICU now. We’ll get him set up on oxygen and then we’ll give him some shots to help his lungs develop faster.”

“Can’t I hold him just a little longer? Please Peggy.” 

Peggy sighed. “You can hold him until I’m done helping you get situated. Then you’ll have to let us bring him to the NICU.” Peggy flittered around the room grabbing things from the bedside table, from the bathroom, from the cupboard under the television mounted on the wall. She came back with a handful of miscellaneous things and set them on the rolling meal table. “You tore a little bit while you were pushing, which isn’t really surprising in normal circumstances. The doctor is going to get a suture kit to stitch you back up. Once he does that, you get to put on these sexy, shapeless underwear,” she said, holding up a pair of mesh underwear. She leaned in and whispered in Eliza’s ear, “The mothers all swear by them.” She set the underwear on the table and motioned to a few other things. “The plastic bottle is to clean your stitches with water, the aerosol can is an antibacterial spray to keep everything clean from infection, and then the maternity pads are obviously pads for all the bleeding and everything.” 

The doctor came in with a packet of sutures in his hand and some needles. “Alright, Mrs. Hamilton. This is a shot. It’ll just numb the area a little bit. Luckily you didn’t tear all that much, so we’ll just sew you up a tiny bit to keep out the infection and then Peggy will explain everything to you. Then, unfortunately, we’ll have to take the baby to his crib in the NICU.” He sat on his stool and began sewing Eliza up, but she didn’t feel anything more than some tugging. The doctor stood up and began to break apart the stirrups on the bed, putting the end of the bed back on. “Alright, Mrs. Hamilton, you’re all stitched up. It’ll be a little sore until it heals, but you’re better than new. Make sure you keep it clean. Change your pads often, clean it with the water spray bottle and spray the antibacterial whenever you go to the bathroom. I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow. Best of luck you guys. The little one’s a fighter.” 

Peggy reached to her sister. “Eliza, I have to take him to the NICU now.”

Eliza began to cry. “Can we go too? I want to see him, I need to. Alexander can wheel me down in a chair. Please Peggy, I can’t lose my baby.” 

Seeing Eliza so broken killed Peggy. “Hold Pip for a little longer and I’ll be back with a wheelchair.” She disappeared out the door and Alexander leaned against the bed. 

“Can I hold him?” Eliza could hear the thickness in his voice, tears trying to fight their way down his face. She nodded and held the tiny newborn out to him. “Hold on.” He opened the buttons on the shirt he was wearing and sat down on the edge of the bed beside Eliza. “Okay, I’m ready.” He grabbed the small baby, wrapped in the damp receiving blanket. Opening his shirt, he set his newborn on his chest, stripping the damp blanket off him. He slid off the bed and into the chair, reaching for Eliza’s hospital bag, grabbing the blanket they had packed for him. 

The blanket was homemade, something Angelica had made while she was traveling abroad. She had learned a lot of crafts on her travels from the different people she lived with. The blanket made Pip look even smaller and Alexander held him close. 

“Hi, Pip,” he whispered. “You’re gonna grow up and be big and strong. You’re going to rule the world one day. But you’ve gotta fight. You have to fight for me and your mommy. You can do it Pip.” 

Peggy walked in the door with a wheelchair. “Eliza, I’ll help you sit in the chair, then Alexander will hand you Philip, okay? And we’ll bring him to his new home for a little while.” 

Eliza threw back the blanket that was draped across her midsection and swung her feet off the bed. She went to stand up and wobbled before falling into the chair. Her body was weak and she knew it, but she was more worried about Pip than herself. But the fact that they hadn’t immediately whisked him away had to be a good sign, right? It meant he was strong enough to survive at least to a point on his own. Pip was set in her arms and Alexander stood behind her chair, pushing her down the hallway. His shirt was still unbuttoned, stray hairs were falling from his ponytail and he had dark circles under his eyes. 

“He’ll be okay,” he whispered, more to himself than anything. “He has to be.” 

The moment they reached the NICU doors, Peggy grabbed Philip from Eliza’s arms and whisked him through the doors into a private room where other nurses were waiting with everything set up beside his crib. Alexander and Eliza sat in the corner of the room, watching their son as he was surrounded by machines and wires. They began attaching monitors and wires all over his tiny body. One nurse was putting a diaper on him while another was putting an oxygen tube in his nose.

“Even the preemie diapers are too big for him…” Alexander whimpered. 

Eliza’s hand reached for her husband’s and held it tightly in hers. “Did we make it worse by holding him so long? Should we have just let Peggy take him right away?”

“No, if we would have made it worse, they wouldn’t have allowed it.” He leaned down and buried his face in Eliza’s neck. “I was on that site you were using to track everything, and there was this article about kangaroo care. It’s been shown to help premature babies.” The word ‘premature’ felt foreign on his tongue. No one had thought they’d be in this situation. “It’s when the parents hold their baby skin-to-skin with a blanket draped over him. That’s part of the reason I put him on my chest.”

“What’s the other part?”

Alexander smiled sadly at his wife. “You looked like you were enjoying it so much when he was on your chest. I just wanted to feel the same.” His thumb rubbed against hers and it calmed her down as she watched the nurses at work. 

“Thirty weeks and one day. That’s what they look like,” Eliza mused. “What do you think he would have looked like if he was full term?

“I don’t know, my love. But he’ll be alright.” The nurses eventually began moving out of the room and finally it was just the four of them; Peggy, Alexander, Eliza, and Philip. 

Eliza was wheeled over to the incubator. “How long will he be stuck in there?”

Peggy opened one of the side ports. “Just until his body temperature is back up and he can regulate it. You can come see him.” 

Philip’s tiny body had multiple different wires coming out from the blanket he was swaddled in. The room was dark and inside the incubator was dark. The room was deathly silent with only the machines by the bed making any noise. 

“You guys got pretty lucky, you know. Most babies don’t develop a sucking reflex until the last few weeks of gestation. He’ll have to work on the sucking, swallowing, and breathing in a cycle thing, but I think he’ll be doing great after a few weeks.” Peggy put her arm around Alexander’s waist and the other hand held her sister’s. 

“Can we help him by doing kangaroo care?”

Peggy smiled. “You can’t be here all the time, but yes. Whenever you’re here, you can hold him and feed him, providing he’s kept warm and his monitors stay on. He’ll probably be able to go home by his due date.”

And she was right. On his due date, the three of them were walking out of the hospital, heading home to everything Alexander and Eliza had bought over the last ten weeks. He was smiling and feeding like nothing had ever happened to him. He was growing and gaining weight, weighing eight pounds, eleven and three-quarters ounces at his checkup with his doctor. Eliza wrapped a blanket tighter around Philip to keep the wind off him as they walked to their car. Both young parents had a smile on their face that could have lit up the sky. 

“Let’s go home, my love. We’ve got some lost playtime to catch up on with our dear little Pip. We’re gonna play on the floor together.” 

Eliza laughed at her husband, but she felt his excitement too. “Just you, me, and Pip. Home together at last.”

**Author's Note:**

> Stalk me on tumblr
> 
> @im-writing-out-of-time


End file.
